IGX SDK now provides On Device Debug Console Logging

Deploying HTML5 games that utilise the IGX SDK to mobile feature will now give you access to a debug logging console that you can log text strings to and display on-device. This is great for debugging awkward issues across different devices. The Debugging service is automatically created for you when you create the Unity vendor via default service creation:

[sourcecode language=”js”]
if (FBInstant.ext !== undefined) // Make sure that IGX is available
{
FBInstant.createDefaultServices("unity");
}
[/sourcecode]

You can now access the debugging services via FBInstant.ext.debug. The following functions are available:

  • FBInstant.ext.debug.clear() – Clears the debug log
  • FBInstant.ext.debug.log(string) – Sends a string to the debug log
  • FBInstant.ext.debug.show(show) – Shows / hides the debug log overlay, show is a boolean that specifies the visible state

IGX – Cross portal and cross platform SDK for web game and instant game developers

IGX stands for Instant Games Extension, it is basically a replacement object for the Facebook Instant Games FBInstant object which enables developers to:

  • Deploy games created that use the Facebook Instant Games API to the web and mobile with little to no code changes
  • Deploy HTML5 web games to mobile
  • Provide a common API across web portals
  • Build instant game features into existing games before deploying to the Instant Games platform, saving valuable time and money
  • Bolster the existing Instant Games platform with new features via FBInstant.ext, such as real time user to user communication

IGX SDK for mobile is now available

Web to mobile

Today I pushed the latest version of the IGX SDK to Github which provides support for deploying IGX SDK compatible games, including Facebook Instant Games and general web games to Android and iOS.

Games are hosted in a web view within Unity 3D. A new library has been provided which plugs into the IGX SDK and communicates between the web view and Unity which provides access to native features such as in-app purchasing and adverts.

Supported features include:

  • Adverts via Unity Ads (Admob is work in progress)
  • In-app purchasing
  • Social login via Game Centre and Google Play Games
  • Leaerboards via Game Centre and Google Play Games
  • Native sharing
  • Analytics via Unity
  • Open external URL’s
  • File uploads
  • Localisation support

The IGX SDK wiki has been updated providing instructions on how to set up a Unity project to host your game and content.

Below is an example of a deployed Facebook Instant Game which has been deployed to Android and iOS stores:

Who is the IGX SDK for?

The IGX SDK is for web and and Facebook Instant Game developers that would like an easy route to take their products from web to mobile platforms such as Android and iOS. IGX provides an alternative solution to the likes of Cordova, PhoneGap and CocoonJS.

MEME arrives on Facebook Instant Games platform

So I got bored with writing games for Facebook Instant Games for a bit and decided to jump on the entertainment app (NO THEY ARE NOT GAMES :D) train that seems to be doing well on Facebook Instant Games right now. I wrote a MEME generator / creator that lets users create their own MEME’s and share them to their timelines. The user can generate around 900 different MEME’s with over 500 different backgrounds. They can customise the text, text size, colour and even sign them. I don’t hold much hope out for it doing well, but its just something that I really wanted to create and really just a stepping stone to much larger more involved entertainment apps.

Coming to web and native mobile using the IGX SDK very soon.

Hello Instant Games X (IGX) SDK

Welcome to the web wrapper to wrap them all!

IGX SDK
IGX SDK

Hey fellow game developers. I’ve spent the best part of this last year researching, analysing and developing games for the Facebook Instant Games platform. Whilst it has been incredibly fun it has not been profitable, in fact I have lost a lot of money. Even so I still have faith in the platform and I do believe that one day it will come through for indie game developers trying to break through.

With this in mind, I’ve spent the best part of the last month working on something interesting and useful that I hope Facebook Instant Game (IG) developers and web developers alike find useful, hopefully encouraging more game and entertainment app developers to come to the platform, as well as give existing developers another way to monetise their instant games elsewhere.

Now I’ve explained the inspiration behind the creation, I will explain a little more about it.

I have created an open source layer called IGX. This is an SDK that has multiple purposes:

  • Bridges the gap between Facebook Instant Games and the web, allowing Facebook Instant Game developers to deploy their games to web and monetise them with little to no changes
  • Enables web game developers to include support for Facebook Instant Games before deploying to the platform
  • Enables all developers to use a common API which allows them to deploy their games across many web portals and provides common game services
  • Extend the IG platform, providing new features via other services

What is IGX? It is basically a complete replacement for the FBInstant object, so you can drop it into your code instead of linking to the FBInstant SDK CDN and your game should just run outside of the IG platform. IGX is based very heavily on two concepts, services and vendors. A service is a feature such as login, payments, ads etc, whilst a vendor is the provider of a particular service. For example, PayPal is a purchasing vendor. Note that some vendors provide many services, for example Xtralife provides user management, leaderboards, back-end storage etc..

You have some minimal setup to carry out depending upon which services and vendors you use, but once set up your game will deploy to that specific platform using all of its features.

Note that not all features of the Facebook Instant Games API are supported but most are. Take a look at the Github repo for more details. Also don’t forget to check out the Wiki.

Note that IGX is still very heavily in development so new services will be added over time. If you find a service that you would like adding then please get in touch with the details.

A new version of Booty5 the free HTML5 game editor will be released in due course with full support for IGX and easy deployment.

Join the IGX SDK community on Facebook.

CrazyGames launches new Developer Portal with revenue share options

Hey web game developers, just seen news regarding CrazyGames, they now have a new developer portal and offer revenue share options for your HTML5 games! Its great to see portals placing value on developers efforts like this.

Note that this also includes web versions of games exported from Unity / Unreal etc..

To celebrate the launch of the public beta version of the CrazyGames Developer Portal, they have organised a contest for game developers. Three independent game experts will choose the best games that have been uploaded between the 1st of October and the 30th of November. The winner will be awarded $2,000! Yes, I think I may be entering some of mine, so fingers crossed :).

I have been looking for another potential avenue for earning money from my Facebook Instant Games so hopefully re-targeting them to general web gaming can be part of my new strategy.

There are however a couple of caveats that may put many off. You cannot earn revenue unless you satisfy these 3 conditions:

  • The game doesn’t contain advertisements.
  • The game doesn’t contain branding from another games portal.
  • The game has not been published on other portals before (Does NOT include Facebook Instant Games Portal).

Booty5 HTML5 Game Maker Update – Support for Facebook Instant Games Added

Facebook Instant Games Support

Finally released the latest version of Booty with support for Facebook Instant Games. Within the Booty5 engine you will find a new class called Instants which is a small wrapper around the Facebook Instants SDK. Games exported from Booty with Instants enabled in the settings will automatically initialise the Facebook Instants SDK and download all preloaded global resources, note that you will need to download any scene local resources yourself after the main download.

To make your project Facebook IG compatible simply tick the Facebook Instants check box in the projects settings then enter the local launch URL into the Host box in project settings, e.g:

https://www.facebook.com/embed/instantgames//player?game_url=https://localhost:8080/

Dragon Bones Animation Support

Unfortunately you cannot edit Dragon Bones animations within the Booty5 editor but you can add the associated PNG, skeleton and atlas JSON files that are exported from Dragon Bones to the editor as resources and access them from within code, e.g:

[sourcecode language=”js”]
// Parse dragon bone data
var factory = dragonBones.b5Factory.factory;
var skel = JSON.parse(b5.Utils.resolveResource("my_skeleton", "raw").data);
var atlas = JSON.parse(b5.Utils.resolveResource("my_atlas", "raw").data);
factory.parseDragonBonesData(skel);
factory.parseTextureAtlasData(atlas, b5.Utils.resolveResource("my_texture", "brush"));

// Create an actor containing the dragon bones armature and attach it to a parent actor
var dba = factory.buildArmatureDisplay("name");
dba.animation.play("anim");
dba.x = 0.0;
dba.y = 0.0;
ParentActor.addActor(dba);
[/sourcecode]

I will in the near future wrap the above into the engine / editor to make it more readily accessible, as well as add the same support for Spine.

Other Stuff

The editor has had a whole host of bug fixes and additional changes to keep pace with the Booty5 game engine. See the Booty5 game engine for more details on those changes.

Upcoming Demos and Documentation

Over the next few days I will be releasing the full Booty5 projects for some of my recent Facebook Instant games so you can use these as a reference / starting point. These games cover many areas of the Facebook Instants SDK including displaying ads, using in-app purchases, submitting leaderboard scores, grabbing and displaying leaderboard entries, inviting other players to play, sharing progress, switching contexts and posting updates to Messenger.

The following full projects have been uploaded thus far:

You can grab the latest version of the Booty5 Game Maker from the Booty5 website.

I am still in the process of updating documentation, I will post details here once that is finished.

Big List of Popular Flash, HTML5 and Unity 3D Web Gaming Portals

Big list of web game portals / sites that accept games mainly from Flash, HTML5 and Unity 3D developers:

Facebook Alexa rank 3
Y8 Alexa rank 761
Kongregate Alexa rank 1375
Miniclip Alexa rank 1750
Kizi Alexa rank 1816
Newgrounds Alexa rank 2624
Poki Alexa rank 2985
itch.io Alexa rank 3449
Armor Games Alexa rank 3472
A10 Alexa rank 4164
Pogo Alexa rank 4955
Big Fish Games Alexa rank 5113
AGame Alexa rank 6009
Addicting Games Alexa rank 6657
Paco Games Alexa rank 8024
Girls Go Games Alexa rank 9280
Zepak Alexa rank 9516
Ninja Kiwi Alexa rank 10681
io Games Space Alexa rank 11295
NotDoppler Alexa rank 14516
Games Games Alexa rank 15194
Yepi Games Alexa rank 21526
Nitrome Alexa rank 24779
KHBG Games Alexa rank 24690
Game House Alexa rank 28541
Free Online Games Alexa rank 28628
Games Freak Alexa rank 35802
MAD Alexa rank 36964
Box10 Alexa rank 43227
One More Level Alexa rank 48128
Mouse Breaker Alexa rank 52226
Games 2 Girls Alexa rank 54837
io-games Alexa rank 56104
Fun Brain Alexa rank 57127
Frip Alexa rank 60455
Puff Games Alexa rank 65496
Crazy Monkey Games Alexa rank 68705
Flash Games 247 Alexa rank 72799
Game Gape Alexa rank 76718
Mind Jolt Alexa rank 78550
Bubble Box Alexa rank 80294
Cool Games Alexa rank 90502
Zapak Alexa rank 95136
GameZ Hero Alexa rank 109726
Spil Games Alexa rank 152091
Game Garage Alexa rank 1295785

* Alexa rank accurate as of 2nd October 2017

The Jazzlers for Android out on Google Play

Well, I decided to take a step back (literally) in game development, back as far as the 80’s. Remember the old Atari style games? well I wanted to create something like that, so the game is pure and simply about game play. Lets take a look at a quick screenshot:

Jazzler Android Game on Google Play
Jazzler Android Game on Google Play

Now this is how I remember games looking on the old Atari 2600, blocky graphics and vivid colours and I loved them.

Ok, so the basics of the game is that a Jazzle drops down the screen and you simply tap the screen to catch it. Each round the Jazzle moves a little faster and becomes a little shorter. The catching mechanism also becomes a little shorter, although it resets in size every 50 rounds or so. If you fail to catch a Jazzle then its Game Over and you have to start from scratch. 

New backgrounds colours are unlocked as you progress, because well I love all the different colours. Also the Jazzle will taunt you, but as you progress you begin to change the Jazzlers taunts from negative to positive.

In case you’re wondering, I can get to around level 50 so far.

Jazzlers is available for both Android tablets and phones on Google Play.

There are no plans for an iOS version yet, because iOS free games are pretty much dead without a big old marketing budget, maybe after Christmas, who knows.

Marmalade Asset Store Offer

Calling all content developers, the newly opened Marmalade Asset Store have an opening offer. Register as a seller now and earn an 80% revenue until the end of 2015 (usual revenue share is 70%).

From 2D / 3D art assets such as backgrounds, textures, sprites, animations, meshes and high quality sound effects, to project files and templates, plus any great integrations you’ve developed and would like to sell or share: all are welcome in the Asset Store.